Simona Halep continued her impressive claycourt campaign at the 2017 Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome on Friday by reaching the semifinal stage of the tournament with a straight-set win over fast-rising youngster Anett Kontaveit.

Coming to Rome straight from her title win in Madrid and a semifinal appearance in Stuttgart, Halep is gearing up as a serious favorite for the 2017 French Open that starts in a little more than a week.

Halep is joined in the semifinals by Kiki Bertens, who beat Daria Gavrilova, as well as the reigning Istanbul champion Elina Svitolina, another player in great clay form, who upset the No.2 seed Karolina Pliskova in dramatic fashion.

The semifinals are completed by Garbine Muguruza. The Spaniard has finally found some proper form after months of struggling, beating Venus Williams in three sets in the quarterfinals.